h a l f b a k e r yI like this idea, only I think it should be run by the government.
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Burning books is flavour of the month, so why not extend it to the world of digital books? This means that book burning can be a very private affair or one that is simultaneously shared through synchronised social networking.
Here's how it works. You download and pay for your book as normal, but if
you select the "Burn after reading" option, you get a discount on the sale, because this book is not going to last long.
After a set period of time (price controlled), your book begins to burn away. You have several options you can select to control this conflagration, ranging from instant vaporisation, through to a highly selective removal of one word or even letter at a time.
You could for example, elect to have all the punctuation smoulder away, emitting tiny trails of smoke across each page as you turn them. Or perhaps you don't like any words longer than four letters, so these all erupt into yellow flames and plumes of sooty ash. When you tilt your device, the smart flames and smoke change direction accordingly. You can choose to watch this sequentially one page at a time to savour the process, or simply select the "entire book option".
When the book has been reduced to ash you may store its remains in a little digital library coffin, along with an appropriate obituary.
XKCD
http://xkcd.com/750/
[hippo, Sep 14 2010]
William Gibson's Agrippa
http://www.antonrau...gibson/agrippa.html
Self-deleting works. [zen_tom, Sep 14 2010]
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This is brilliant!!!!!!
Seriously, if you build it, they will come. I have a list of
books I'd pay to burn. |
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But you also need to make sure that the "burning" is visible
to all viewers. |
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This could provide a whole new marketing scheme. You could sell burnable books for a fraction of a permanent book, with a price based on the days before immolation. So if the buyer didn't read it in time, they'd have to buy it again, yet if they didn't like it, they didn't spend that much. The reader gets a potentially cheaper book and the writer gets higher sales. Brilliant. |
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William Gibson released a digital work that erased itself as you read it -I forget the details - will do a google. |
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Having an iPhone app which simulated the burning of the Bible or the Koran would certainly be simpler than the real thing. You could alternatively show your support for books by showing this process in reverse, and simulating their phoenix-like transformation from ashes to complete books. |
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//this process in reverse// |
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YESSSS! This is how we fund the Halfbakery Foundation!!!!
For book burners, we charge a fee to legitimately buy a
digital copy, which is held in storage for a finite period
(say, 1 month). Book savers can buy the book back out, at
the same price, and receive the file as a legitimate buyer.
If the book is not rescued, it gets deleted along with a
graphical simulation. |
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Xenzag, you are a genius!! |
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What do the middle east protesters do if you burn a
Koran with an American flag cover? |
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Actually, come to think of it I couldn't care less. |
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Actully that's not a bad idea - incorporate the entire
Koran into the design of the US flag, printed as
microtext somewhere in the middle. Then the
people who burn US flags will have a bit of a
dilemma. |
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See, that's the reason this is the only social site
on
the web worth posting on. Where else you gonna
see
a U.S. flag / Koran microtext mind messer-upper? |
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Dare anybody to play a practical joke on some
Middle East protesters and hide a Koran in an
American flag. Then when they burn it, pop out
and say "Surprise! You've been punked! You just
burned a Koran!" |
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I'm sure they'd think it was really clever and funny
and we'd all laugh and be friends after that. |
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Are you not on MaxCo.'s mailing list? |
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By the way Max, jealous of your hinge idea. I've
installed a few hinges and it's a miserable, mistake
prone process. |
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If anyone out there wants to produce these and make me...I
mean us...rich, go for it. |
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//hide a Koran in an American flag// |
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Or put the American flag on the back of the dollar bill as a ubiquitous symbol for burning. So every flag-dollar burned is an IOU we don't have to honor. |
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